Article published in:
Understanding Historical (Im)PolitenessEdited by Marcel Bax and Dániel Z. Kádár
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12:1/2] 2011
► pp. 255–282
An evolutionary take on (im)politeness
Three broad developments in the marking out of socio-proxemic space
Marcel Bax | University of Groningen
This paper is intended as an overall template of the evolution of (im)politeness. It elucidates how (linguistic) rapport management originated and developed over time, and tries to come to grips with (some of) the sociocultural factors behind such changes. Taking its point of departure in human prehistory (Section 1), the paper argues that, contrary to received wisdom, politeness and impoliteness are not two sides of the same coin (Section 2), and it discusses the dissimilar evolutionary antecedents of politeness and impoliteness (Sections 3 and 4). The paper then maps out three broad-scale diachronic trends regarding the conveyance of interpersonal distance, ipso facto the marking out of socio-proxemic interactional space; namely, (a) from performative to verbal, (b) from self-display to other-concern and (c) from collectivity-oriented to individual-oriented (Section 5).
Keywords: (im)politeness, historical (im)politeness, cultural evolution, pragmatic development, facework
Published online: 07 June 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.12.1-2.11bax
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.12.1-2.11bax
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Constantinescu, Mihaela-Viorica
Saltamacchia, Francesca & Andrea Rocci
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.